Ancient Walls of Flowers
by Flowa Chylde
Summary: Otto was always a smart kid. He understood history, he understood science. What he doesn't understand is the world around him, and the people he knows. This story attempts to capture the essence of the confusion that haunts even the smartest of children.


Ancient Walls of Flowers 

Natsu-notes: OK, this at first started off as a creative writing idea I read in this gifted and talented book that my friend was reading. Feeling that irrepressible urge to prove myself as equally gifted and talented as she, I soon found myself caught up in writing the first fanfic ever since last year. So, I present to you, Ancient Walls of Flowers. …Wowsers, that's the shortest Author's Notes ever! 0o;

-Natsumi K., Sydney, '03.

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 _(NB: This story is written from Otto's point of view, and he is 3 at this chapter, so don't expect lots of fancy metaphors.)_

_5/12/1997_

I am looking out at a narrow shaft of light coming in through the window of my room. The window has bars on it. The room is my jail cell. I am in jail for killing my mommy and daddy.

I killed my mommy and daddy. It's my fault they died. It's my fault Mommy got sick, and it's my fault Daddy got too sad to be alive. It's my fault, and police lady knew it, and she put me here. In the jail.

I close my eyes and pretend I'm in a dungeon. In the crusades. I'm the brave hero, and the Moors have put me in the dungeon in Antioch. Then, I think of a plan. I am going to tell the French soldiers how to get into the castle. They will see me through the window and I will tell them they can saw off the bars and I can escape and they will climb in the castle and smash the bricks and take over the city. And then I'll ride away on a horse that's waiting for me. But first, I'll need to climb up to the window—

"Good GOD, kid, do you want to get yourself killed?" I heard an angry voice called out and cold hand slap my face.

"Yes!" I yelled. I was being stupid. "I shall die on the battlefield in the name of the King and the Lord Jesus!" The lady hit me again.

"You little brat. You may as well go fall and kill yourself. Not like anyone here would give a rat's. But another kid equals another liability. So you sit there and don't move."

I was scared, so I hit her. More of a scratch than a hit, I feel, though. She looked at me with her evil eyes and I was scared and she went away.

When I was sure she had gone, I left my room. My room is a house in Siberia, and I am Vladimir Lenin. I have been in exile for disobeying the Star. The Star is the king of Russia, and I am the revolutionary. But in this game, I will be good and I will not kill the Star's children. Just the Star. And then I will reform the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks can go away and live somewhere else. But first, I need to escape from Siberia.

I walked out of my house in Siberia, and the Star's secret police didn't see me. I am escaping to Munich, not to Russia. And I will meet all the people and they will make me the leader. I am walking to Munich, through the snow, alongside the railroad tracks. But the snow turns into the carpet, and the railroad turned into the walls.

I walked out the corridor and into the playroom. The playroom was dark, and the roof was leaking, and there were little mushrooms growing on the carpet. There was a little Negro girl sitting in the floor playing with two dollies. She was making them kill each other. She threw the Raggedy Ann dolly away and them got up to stamp on it.

Then she saw me. She was a prisoner here, too.

"Hello." She said. I didn't answer.

"Hello," she said again. Still didn't say anything. This girl had eyes like a ghost. They were big and black with little specks of green. Like my mommy's. I felt sad and started to cry.

"You are sad." The Negro girl walked up to me. 

"I can tell. My social worker gave me a big poster about how we feel today, and it has a sad face and a happy face and a lot of other faces. You look like the sad face, I suspect thus that you are not happy and you are sad." She patted my head and tried to pull me up.

"There, there." She sounded like mommy when she said that. But I didn't feel sad.

Then she just looked at me, took the corners of her dress in her hands and bowed like the ladies in England do, and walked away to kill Raggedy Ann some more. I don't know why she hated that dolly so much. Then she said;

"This dolly is me. This dolly is me, this dolly is me." And then she just fell to the floor and cried.

I didn't like this room, and being near this girl made me feel funny. She was crying very loudly, it made my head feel very sore. So, I went back to my room. But there was a lady standing there. 

"Hi there, Sweets." This lady came from the south. You can tell from how she talks to me.

"I'm Emma, I'm your special helper here." She had red hair and blue eyes and shirt like a cowboy, with little fringes on the arms.

I didn't say anything.

"Do you want to talk to me?"

"No." I said.

"That's okay," she said, "Sometimes we don't want to talk about things. But we need to talk about them sooner or later or they can make us sad."

"I don't want to talk." I said. So I didn't. We looked at each other without talking for a few minutes.

"You don't have to stay here," I told her. "I can be myself. I'm not afraid."

Emma smiled at me.

"Well, I'm here when you need me, Sweets." She messed up my hair and then she left.

I could hear the girl crying from the other room. I listened to Emma walking to the playroom. Then Emma said something to her; I don't know what, and the girl screamed

"Don't you touch me, don't touch me! You mustn't touch me! DON'T TOUCH ME!!" And then the crying got softer and softer, like someone was carrying her away, until I couldn't hear it anymore.

I sat on the bed and took out crayon I had in my pocket for safekeeping and drew on the wall. Big flowers and stars and the sun and the grass and my house and me and my mommy and my daddy. And they were there and they were happy and they weren't dead. They were standing next to me, and they were smiling. And then I drew the Negro girl, She was standing next my mommy and she was smiling and she had the Raggedy Ann dolly and it was smiling too. And then I drew some flowers and the flowers were smiling, too. Even the sky was smiling.

But I looked at my picture on the walls and I cried.

Disclaimer: Time Squad and all affiliated characters are the intellectual property of Mr. David Wasson, and is the legal property of Cartoon Network Studios Inc, 2001-2003.

All text was entered by Natsumi Chieko Kobayakawa and remains the intellectual and legal property of Miss Kobayakawa, _ipso facto_. No correspondence shall be entered into. What? Are you actually reading this disclaimer? Sheesh, you have no life, do you know that? Go outside and play in the sunshine! Live a little, you pasty-faced geek! …After you review this story, of course. ^^


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